A Prior Engagement
by Elizabeth Caitlin
Summary: AU. Kagome and Inuyasha slowly start to fall in love…but just when they’re beginning to realize it, Kikyo announces that she and Inuyasha are already engaged. A reflection on who Inuyasha would have picked had Kikyo and Kagome been alive at the same t


Author's Note: Well, here it is! A Prior Engagement! Unless any of you have read my Zelda fic, you probably haven't heard of me before. I hope you like my little fic...I've also begun writing another one, but the idea for this one popped into my head and I couldn't let it go. It's an examination of which girl Inuyasha would pick if he was ever forced to choose between them...set in the modern USA. (That's mainly because I live there and I know nothing about Japan.) So sit back, relax, enjoy...and please review when you're done. I like feedback! It lets me know what you guys think.

Oh, by the way, most of the people in this fic are a different age than they are in the anime or manga. I did this for various reasons (for example, in order for Inuyasha to be self-sufficient in the modern age, he has to be at least eighteen). So bear with me; I know they're wrong. I did it on purpose!

Disclaimer: Unless I'm Rumiko Takahashi, and she's decided to start writing profitless fanfiction, I don't Inuyasha. Period. (And before anyone starts, I'm not someone who writes the anime, or an executive at Cartoon Network, or anyone else who owns a chunk of Inuyasha. Nice try.)

**A Prior Engagement**

**By Elizabeth Caitlin**

**Prologue**

"Inuyasha, there's something I have to tell you," Kikyo whispered, enjoying the feel of his lips on hers in the darkness.

Inuyasha growled at her, a low, throaty sound that sent waves of anticipation down her spine even as her mind clouded with guilt. "What is it, Kikyo?" he murmured, his hands lacing themselves under the silk of her dress. She sighed.

They were in the bedroom of his apartment as they were every night, grasping at each other in the dim, fading light of sunset and continuing until the moon was high in the sky. Being eighteen years old, Inuyasha had his own place; and for this small fact Kikyo was eternally grateful.

"I love you," she managed, and her voice caught in her throat. That wasn't all she had to say, but Inuyasha was already unbuttoning the back of her dress, clutching her to him in a fierce embrace.

"I know," he said gently, showering her hair with kisses. "I love you, too."

"No...Inuyasha..." Ever so gently, she pushed his hands aside, and leaned backward so she could look him in the eye. "There's something else."

Inuyasha's brilliant amber eyes clouded; he could tell something was wrong. With a worried look, he leaned forward, pulling Kikyo into a tight hug.

"What's the matter?" he mumbled, breathing in her scent. His eyes widened. "You're not pregnant?"

"No," she said softly, unable to repress a chuckling sigh. "Nothing like that. It's just..."

"What?" Inuyasha inquired. "You can tell me anything. You know that."

Yes, she did know that. But that didn't make this any less hard.

"Inuyasha, I've...I've decided to leave school." Before he could give a startled response, she whispered, "To become a nun."

Inuyasha couldn't speak. He just looked jolted, caught off guard. He stared at her with an innocent gaze. "But Kikyo...that would mean...that we can't be together anymore..." With a look of horror he pulled away from her. Kikyo bowed her head.

"I know, Inuyasha. I know..." Telling him her decision had been one thing, but there were no words, no modems of expression, to explain to him how this made her feel...how heart-wrenching this decision had been, how she had cried at the thought of losing the man she loved.

The hurt in his eyes was undeniable, and it pained her to see it. "Kikyo, I...why?" The ache of longing in his expression was more than she could bear, and she closed her eyes.

"Inuyasha, I – I've been thinking of doing this for quite a long while now. I didn't want to tell you, because I knew you'd be this way, and I thought there was no point in hurting you if I might end up changing my mind...but now I know." She took a deep breath. "There's this jewel called the Shikon no Tama...they've asked me to guard it. It will be one of my responsibilities as a nun."

"What's the Shikon no Tama?" Inuyasha asked, avoiding the subject he was really thinking of entirely. Kikyo sighed once more.

"It's a very corrupted and very powerful possessed jewel...it's hard to explain. It grants people power, and demons everywhere are on the lookout for it. They said they needed someone exceptionally pure to guard it...and apparently I fit that description."

Inuyasha was silent. His eyes were mournful, his face twisted in pain, and after a few moments of strained silence he nodded his head. "I agree with them."

Kikyo stared at him in surprise. "What?"

"They're right. You _are_ exceptionally pure." He regarded the sixteen-year-old before him carefully, taking in her brown eyes and long black hair and unsullied white face. He hesitated a moment before asking, "So...I take it you don't have to be a virgin to guard this Shikon Jewel?"

Kikyo nodded. "Having sex when you're in love is like not having sex at all. It's still pure." She stared at him meaningfully. "But after the Shikon no Tama comes into my possession, you and I won't be able to..." She trailed off, leaving him to comprehend her meaning.

Inuyasha's eyes had darkened; he turned away. "So you're leaving me," he said flatly, ignoring the pleading look on her face.

"Inuyasha, it's not like that!"

He caught her eye. "Yes, it _is_!" He wrenched himself fully out of her arms and abruptly sat up, catching Kikyo off guard. "You're leaving me to become a nun in some church...what about the promises we made?"

Her gaze fell to the ring on her left ring finger, a gift from Inuyasha as a sign of their undying love. Kikyo wanted to cry.

"Inuyasha, I..."

"Save it." He got up from the bed and fled towards the door, his long white hair trailing behind him. "I'm going to leave. You know the way out." He turned one last time and met her cheerless gaze, his dejection and outrage at being abandoned very clear as his eyes bore into hers. "I trusted you," he whispered mournfully. "I trusted you when I've never been able to trust anyone my whole life, and now you turn around and do this...?" He swept out of the room like a bat out of hell, and Kikyo's eyes welled with tears as the door to the apartment slammed shut.

A/N: Well, that's all for now. I'll be updating soon...and this prologue is extremely short compared to what the rest of the chapters will be. The actual chapters will be about three and a half times as long as this prologue is...

Well, you know what to do! Review, review, review! Thank you kindly...


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